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What did you Say?

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Now that we’ve begun to tackle developing our characters, we can begin to write their dialogue. We must ask ourselves many questions including:

1. What does this character feel passionate about?

2. What level of education does the character have?

3. To whom does the character have many of his/her conversations?

4. What’s the character’s nationality/heritage/upbringing?

5. What expressions would the character use?

6. What’s the speed of the character’s speaking?

7. Does the character’s speech pattern change in different circumstances? (ie would they speak differently at work than at home or when excited or under stress?)

8. Does the character have a sense of humor? How do they show it?

9. Is the character naturally long-winded or do they speak with brevity?

10. Is the character articulate or does he/she have trouble making himself/herself understood?

This list of questions is by no means inclusive and any insight you can find to help you develop the character’s own unique “voice” should be utilized.

Once the dialogue is written, it helps to hear it read aloud. Writers may enjoy doing this themselves or enlisting a group of actors (or even friends & family) to read the various characters. This is especially important in theatrical scripts where the lines will be spoken audibly by actors as opposed to dialogue from a book that is spoken in the mind of the reader. When read aloud, awkward lines will practically jump off the page.

Although musicals have often been accused of enlisting light-hearted, shallow plots and less than three-dimensional characters in favor of a dynamic musical score and dazzling choreography, this is simply not the case anymore than it may be said of movies, books or television shows. There will always be levels of caliber in each genre that range from poor to outstanding.

Think of some of your favorite characters in these musicals:

Phantom of the Opera
Les Miserables
Miss Saigon
Jekyll and Hyde
The Sound of Music
The Producers
Annie Get your Gun.

There is one way in which the dialogue of characters in a musical may differ from the other genres, however. Often, the songs the characters sing are, in fact, an extension of their speeches. Now, it’s up to the lyricist to create appropriate words that can be set to the composer’s music while keeping the integrity of the character and his/her personality traits. That’s NOT an easy job!

The bottom line when it comes to dialogue:

Keep it in character!

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